John Renbourn is a fabulous guitarist with a 40+ year recording history spanning traditional folk, blues, early music, country/contra dance and other styles. Ship of Fools is a collection of British Isles tunes in the traditional and medieval style that’s been getting a bunch of play for me recently. The first and last tracks on the album grab me particularly hard. “Traveller’s Prayer” is a beautifully arranged vocal piece with lovely pagan lyrics, adapted from a traditional prayer that’s clearly halfway between moon worship and christianity. “Searching for Lambs” has a rhythmic structure that makes my head hurt, and I have a very difficult time imagining how one might transcribe the piece.

But back to that rhythmic structure. Maybe a better musician than I could give me a hand with this.

1. Here's a low-ish quality mp3 of the tune.

What time signature would you say that’s in?

The A section (with vocals) seems like it’s in 5/4 for three measures and then 3/4 for a measure, at least in the bodhran part. But in the guitar part it doesn’t break down quite like that, and really seems to be an 18-beat long pattern. Would that be 18/4 or 18/8, or something weirder?